August 13, 2023     Text:  Job 38:4-18

Dear Friends in Christ,

One of our great weaknesses is our understanding of God.  When we misunderstand Him, we also confuse His Word.  As an example, the Christmas story.  We have heard it our whole life and figure we pretty much know everything.  Do you now?  How many wise men?  Wrong.  The Bible doesn’t say.  We assume three because they brought three gifts.  Where did the wise men greet Jesus and family?  Not in a manger.  In a house.  The shepherds went to the manger.  Which gospel writers wrote of this penultimate event in the life of the world?  Nope, incorrect.  Only Matthew and Luke were scribes of the Christmas story.  Go home today and read Matthew 1 and 2 and Luke chapter 2 and see if you don’t go, “Huh?”

Today God is going to talk directly to Job, and he still is not going to comprehend.  We are in the same place before God as we lack a clear understanding.  God talks to Job and to you and I and is asking . . .

“WHO ARE YOU?”

Years ago, Woody Allen made a movie called “Sleeper.”  In the movie he wakes up in the future saying, “Where are my friends?  They’re dead.  How could they be?  They ate organic rice.”  You know how it is.  Just when you think you can avoid all of life’s negatives, you can’t.  Even if you eat organic rice.  Or, as someone once noted, “Living is like licking honey off a thorn.”  We have the goodies of life and the pain.

Job went through life’s negatives.  Talk about licking honey off a thorn.  Job did have it all:  wealth, health, family, and most important, a strong faith.  Then the evil one took it all away.  His flocks were stolen, his children died in a freak storm, his body became covered in sores.  Job’s wife’s answer was to curse God for his suffering.  His friends came by not to console him, but they wanted him to admit God was punishing him for some hidden sin.

For a while, Job kept the strong faith, but then he began to waver.  He begins to challenge God.  Right before our text God says in verse 2 about Job, “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge.”  Job is speaking about things he knows nothing about.  God is basically saying to Job, “Who are you, why are you telling me about my creation?”  Job had no understanding of what God had created.  The vast dimensions.  The intimate details for the seas.  Job thought he understood good and evil, but the poor guy was in the dark.

Job’s sin was that he was confusing his relationship with God.  He was basing his relationship with God on his own knowledge about who God is and what He has done.  Job was placing his intellect over his trust and faith in God.

You say, “Sometimes I feel like Job?”  Now, when was that?  We live more on our knowledge than our faith.  We place our trust in what we know or think rather than on the One who is the source of our knowledge.  We are skewed because we think of ourselves as better than we are.  As science discovers more about creation, we miss the questions that still come up.  I still love Isaiah’s words, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.”  Knowledge is important.  The reason we go to Sunday School and Bible study and listen to the sermon.  We expand our knowledge of God and creation.  But our knowledge is far from complete and even at times faulty, like with our Christmas quiz.

God speaks to you and I:  “Who are you?”  Our Lord can be a little sarcastic, I love that, don’t you?  “You think you got it all figured out.  You think you can trust in your knowledge and be like me.  Who are you?”

Why, we are forgiven sinners, of faith no stronger than Job but forgiven no less than every other sinner.  This forgiveness does not come from our knowledge of God, but as a gift from the creator of the world.  He even commands the winds and the waves as we heard in our Gospel for today.

We cannot fully understand God’s plan to save mankind, which would lead God’s own Son to die on a cross.  We cannot comprehend how this Son of God, Jesus, would rise from the dead, conquering sin, death, and the evil one once for all time.  We cannot reason in our minds that water poured over a child “included in God’s command and combined with God’s Word” would create faith in the promises of our Savior, Jesus.

What God has done goes against all logical explanation, yet this is most certainly true!  We believe the promise that because Jesus’ death on the cross, our sins are forgiven.  We trust that because of Jesus’ resurrection, we have the promise of life forever with Him.  We simply have faith that in our Baptism, we are His.

We believe that if God asked, “Who are you?” we could honestly answer, “We are sinners, forgiven and set free by Jesus’ death on the cross.”  Trust in Him and lean not on your own understanding.

Amen.        

August 6, 2023               Text:  Romans 9:1-5

Dear Friends in Christ,

In our society we celebrate upward mobility.  Something we call the “American Way”.  You can be a success even coming from modest means.  But there are also stories of downward mobility.  The rich kid given everything who wastes it all.  In the days of the Depression, former millionaires were selling apples off the street or jumping off of buildings to end it all.  

Today’s Epistle is a downward mobility story.  St. Paul is grieving over his own people, Israel.  Look at everything they had been given.  Adoption as sons, heirs of the covenants, the glory of the Lord, worship life in the temple in Jerusalem, the heritage of the patriarchs, and then the promise given to them came in the flesh, Christ Jesus, the Lord and Savior.

How many advantages could one nation have?  But Paul as a member of this family is hurting because his kinsmen are rejecting their Messiah.  Some of you know this hurt.  Family members turning their back on their Lord and their faith.  Given many of the same advantages as the Israelites they wander off in the wrong direction.  Let’s get some encouragement here today . . . 

“DOWNWARD MOBILITY HELP”

It has been a trend for a while now to trace your ancestry.  A detailed genetic analysis of your connection to the past.  What part of your background is German, or Norwegian, or Spanish, or Indian?  Anybody ever find out a part of you is an Israelite?  The Israelites of Paul’s day took pride in being blood descendants of Abraham.  Abraham though had two sons – Ishmael and Isaac.  Only one was an Israelite.  Isaac had twin sons – Jacob and Esau – but only one was the forerunner of Jesus and the son of the promise.

In God’s eyes, a true Israelite, a true child of Abraham, is not one by natural birth but by faith in the promise of Christ.  You can’t prove that with a genetic test.  You can only trust your Baptism, which tells you who your spiritual Daddy is.

This is why Paul was grieved for his people.  They had broken God’s covenant, torn down His altars, and murdered his prophets.  Jesus wasn’t even welcome among his own relatives or in his hometown.  They had thrown away all of their advantages.

Being human we should expect more downward mobility than upward.  Sinners will throw away their blessings more than they will treasure them.  Christians can be tempted by a theology of glory.  This preaching tells you that Christ is a winner, and you can be a winner too.  Accept Jesus they say, and you can overcome all your bad habits, have a great romantic marriage, and have children who are respectful and won’t dye their hair or pierce something you don’t think should be pierced.  Winning with Jesus gets you promoted at work and your softball team never loses.  This win with Jesus religion is always a letdown.  You struggle with bills and have to work at your marriage and your kids might be a little strange or leave the faith of their youth.  How can I accept Christ and still be a loser?  

Then a well-meaning friend steps in and tells you, “You just need more faith!”  Right.  So, you dig down deep inside yourself and try to whomp up some more faith – and it just won’t whomp.

In our Gospel today, the crowds are experiencing a little downward mobility, a food shortage.  It wasn’t the faith of the people that changed the outcome, it was the Savior of all mankind.  Faith doesn’t save.  Jesus saves.  The crowd experienced upward mobility as they were fed in abundance.

Ours is the Gospel of salvation in Christ, for on the cross, He earned it for us.  Ours is the washing of Holy Baptism, where we were buried into that death of Christ, all our sins were washed away, and we were brought to faith in Him.  Ours is the Holy Communion, where Christ comes to live within us.  In Baptism we are made one with Christ.  In the Lord’s Supper Christ becomes one with us.  Ours is the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.

All of this is our downward mobility help.  Paul was distressed and literally wanted to die for his people.  Noble, but not practical.  What he could do was to share God’s Word with them.  He could encourage them.  He could pray for them.  He could leave it in God’s hands.  Be reminded again – Jesus saves.  Those in a downward mobility spiral have to be lifted up by Him.  Live the faith.  Partake of the Sacraments.  Strengthen your walk with Jesus.  Where does my help come from?  It comes from the Lord.

Amen.    

July 30, 2023         Text:  Matthew 13:44-52

Dear Friends in Christ,

Ladies and Gentlemen step right up.  You have come to the right place this morning. (Not that sitting in the Lord’s sanctuary is ever the wrong place to be.)  You are going to get from Jesus three parables for the price of one.  As we get tired of looking at higher grocery prices the Lord has a three for one deal that you cannot pass up.  These parables taught the disciples.  These parables are going to teach us.  We need the guidance, don’t we?

“BASIC TRAINING WITH PARABLES”

What treasure might you find in your home?  When Toni and I first got married I told her if this ministry thing didn’t work out, I had a box full of baseball cards that would be worth something someday.  We might have enough for a week of living expenses!

The first treasure is hidden in a field.  This parable has a Christological interpretation.  The field is the world, the treasure is us (the hearer), and the man is Christ.  Christ gives up the glory of heaven to win salvation for you.  This is the first teaching moment.

The second parable is a little different.  The man goes in search of pearls.  He knows a good pearl when he sees one.  When he finds the best one, he sells all he has to buy it.  We too have a treasure.  That treasure is the gift of Jesus Christ.

Looking at my baseball cards as a treasure, what I have done with them over the years?  Mostly they sit in a box on a bookcase.  Occasionally, I will get them out to relive childhood or scratch the itch of curiosity.  Is there something better I could be doing with them?  I could put them in a nice photo album to keep them in a more pristine condition.  They would then be more valuable when sold.  Maybe I don’t understand the treasure.

This is what happens with the pearl of faith you and I have received.  God sent the Holy Spirit into our hearts so that we might receive this treasure.  Isn’t it a treasure to know that God sent his Son to take on human form and to carry our pain and sorrow – even die on a cross – so that Paradise might be restored.  This the second rung in our basic training.

Our third parable is like the parable of the weeds which was our sermon last Sunday.  Remember the commission the Lord gave to the disciples to be “fishers of men?”  Here the fishermen haul in both good and bad fish.  Because of the bad fish we know the devil is still at work.  The disciples as fishermen have no authority to execute judgment before the net is hauled in.  The nets of God gather good and bad alike for the eternal sorting that is to come.  The bad fish are not dead; they were caught alive, but are worthless for eating like the fruit from the bad tree.  The bad fish are discarded into the fiery furnace as a continuation of the illustration of the weeds.  The basic training concludes with this parable, or does it?

Now Jesus wants to know if these 12 men have understood what He is talking about.  As is their nature, they all answer, “Yes.”  How about you?  Do you understand?  You know the story of Jesus and what He has done for you.  You come to the cross weekly to thank Him for the gift of forgiveness.  

Has the treasure cost you?  Would you give up your prized possessions to keep this treasure?  Do you have the answers you need in life or are you still searching for the pearl?  Our pearls we go in search of are:  science for cures; philosophy for purpose, psychology for understanding.  They are fine pearls, but they are not the pearl.  They look nice, but they do not answer the deeper problems of life.  The Holy Spirit leads us to the pearl of great value.  We realize that only this pearl has the answers to life’s questions.

It is easy to say yes to the confession of sins when we read it from the hymnal or bulletin.  We answer yes to “do you intend to amend your sinful life?” but then we fail to keep our promise after the benediction.  We have given the right answer, but do we answer in faith?  We do if our answer of yes in wrought in faith through the conviction of God’s Holy Spirit.  Jesus knows our minds and builds our answers.  God works in us to give us new insights and a new conviction of our faith.  God can produce new commitments and a new way of life.  Jesus can bring new life to our bungled past.

Well, how has basic training gone?  Hasn’t it been a blessing to be taught by the Master?  What an enormous treasure we have in Jesus Christ.  This true pearl answers all of our questions in this life.  We joyfully receive the great treasure of forgiveness and eternal life.

Amen.